Two arrested in Malda bank forgery case

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 4 MARCH: Police in Malda arrested two persons yesterday for being allegedly involved in a bank forgery case, following complaints lodged by the State Bank of India authority.

Police suspect an inter-state racket is at work with the players spread in Murshidabad and South Dinajpur district as well.

After arresting two persons, Mr Samendra Mandal and Mr Nibaran Ghosh, from Ratua police station area in this connection yesterday, police are now looking for more suspected persons, including one Mr Kayesh Ali, who had opened a bank account in the SBI’s Amriti branch in English Bazaar, Malda and withdrew Rs19.25 lakh ,  from the branch recently.

According to the SBI officials, Mr Ali deposited a cheque of Rs 19.25 lakh, apparently issued by an account holder of the Bank of Boroda’s Unnao branch in Uttar Pradesh.

After payment, the SBI’s reconciliation cell in Mumbai detected a forgery case in Malda’s Amriti branch and alerted the regional officials. Following this, the Malda SBI officials stopped payment of three other similar cheques issued from Unnao in UP.

More suspicious deposits were detected and after primary investigation, police concluded that the racketeers had forged the bank papers at Unnao with the help of a courier agency.

The additional SP in Malda, Mr Kalyan Mukherjee said: “The racketeers managed the letter of the SBI’s Amrity branch from a local courier service in Malda. The racketeers forged the letter of clearance and signature of the Bank of Baroda officials in Unnao and sent it to SBI’s Amriti branch bycourier”.

Meanwhile, Mr Subrata Mandal, an officer of the SBI Amriti branch had cleared a cheque of Rs 19.25 based on a forged letter. Last week the SBI management had asked Mr Mandal to clarify within seven days how he made the payment against a forged letter. Mr Mandal was suspended yesterday for “negligence of duty” and on other charges.

Protesting against the suspension, the SBI Officers’ Association today convened an indefinite strike closing 37 SBI branches in Malda and South Dinajpur demanding unconditional withdrawal of Mr Mandal’s suspension order.

The SBIO’s regional secretary, Mr Deb Ranjan De, said:” The strike would continue if the management does not withdraw the suspension order. The agitation would start in other regional offices in the Bengal circle from tomorrow”.